Don’t sleep on this one.
An energetic, insomniac romp of an anti-bedtime book.
A wakeful child narrator recounts the goings-on in a large, multiracial family’s zany household long after everyone should be asleep. Rhyming verse with a singsong cadence details activities ranging from the mundane (“Grandma’s at her needlework. / Dad is baking bread. / My brother’s making laundry lists / of every book he’s read”) to the bizarre (“Now Mom just took an audience / with Queen Sigrid the Third. / My brother has just taught the cat a dozen dirty words”). It’s a rollicking read-aloud, but inconsistent line breaks may cause some to slip up upon first reading. Pop-culture references pep things up and range from the stodgy (Sinatra, “Clementine”) to the very contemporary (poke tattoos, the film Condorman), though the conceit drags on a bit too long. Throughout, Harris’ illustrations have a retro feel that evokes, at turns, Tomie Ungerer and Maira Kalman, and they expand on the details of the text to ratchet up the humor and drama—building on the mention of a lake to depict the setting not as a mere house but an elaborate lighthouse. The conclusion shows the narrator descending the stairs to find everyone asleep at daybreak, a predictable, yet satisfying, end.
Don’t sleep on this one. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7805-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
See, hear, touch, taste, smell...and imagine poetry all around you.
A neighborhood walk unleashes the power of poetry.
Kiyoshi, a boy of Japanese heritage, watches his poet grandfather, Eto, write a poem in calligraphy. Intrigued, Kiyoshi asks, “Where do poems come from?” So begins a meditative walk through their bustling neighborhood, in which Kiyoshi discovers how to use his senses, his power of observation, and his imagination to build a poem. After each scene, Eto jots down a quick poem that serves as both a creative activity and an instruction for Kiyoshi. Eventually Kiyoshi discovers his own poetic voice, and together the boy and his grandfather find poems all around them. Spare, precise prose is coupled with the haiku Kiyoshi and his grandfather create, building the story through each new scene to expand Kiyoshi’s understanding of the origin of poems. Sensory language, such as flicked, whooshed, peeked, and reeled, not only builds readers’ vocabulary, but also models the vitality and precision of creative writing. The illustrations are just as thoughtfully crafted. Precisely rendered, the artwork is soft, warm, and captivating, offering vastly different perspectives and diverse characters who make up an apparently North American neighborhood that feels both familiar and new for a boy discovering how to view the world the way a poet does. Earth tones, coupled with bright yellows, pinks, and greens, draw readers in and encourage them to linger over each spread. An author’s note provides additional information about haiku.
See, hear, touch, taste, smell...and imagine poetry all around you. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62014-958-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tender tale with a reminder to look up and all around us.
A whimsical yet poignant tweet by actor D’Onofrio that went viral in 2019 is the basis for this picture book.
Fact: Pigs can’t look up at the sky. Their neck muscles and spines are built such that their head movements are limited, though they can look up to an extent—e.g., if their heads are tilted. This reality lies at the heart of this minimally worded book in which a brown-skinned girl rigs up a contraption to lift her beloved pet pig, enabling it to see the stars. Girl and pig even become constellations. The girl declares she wants to be treated “that kindly and see the stars for the first time.” We get a sense she means more than literally viewing stars. This is confirmed by the author’s note, in which D’Onofrio talks about “small acts of kindness” and acknowledges people who helped him “broaden my narrow view of what I might be capable of.” He asks: “How do we look beyond ourselves? This girl and this pig only had to look up.” What he and this gentle, thought-provoking book suggest is that we become “stars” if we look around us and notice others who might need us. Adults sharing this book should solicit such ideas from children—as well as additional ways to get pigs to look up. Cunningham’s delicate illustrations are moving and lovely. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tender tale with a reminder to look up and all around us. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9781951836757
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cameron Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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